Rowan women’s basketball wins second consecutive game, moves to 15-8

Members of the Rowan women's basketball team look on during the game against NJCU. The Profs won the game 89-45. -Staff photo/Nicole Mingo

After a tough 56-53 home loss at the hands of The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) on Feb. 1, and a dominant 89-45 home win against New Jersey City University (NJCU) on Saturday, the Rowan women’s basketball team made it two-straight after beating Kean 93-86.

The team now stands at 15-8 overall and 9-7 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference.

The brown and gold made a few adjustments after the home loss to TCNJ and from the looks of things, those adjustments transitioned well against the Gothic Knights and the Cougars. One of those was in the rebounding department, where they out rebounded the opposing team 55-41 and 56-54 respectively.

The Profs are 21-0 during the season when they out rebound their opponents and 3-8 when they fail to do so.

However, in those three wins, the Profs forced opposing teams to turn the ball over 42, 43, and 30 times respectively. Head coach Lisella strives to have her team find ways to impact ball games whenever the rebounding battle isn’t going their way.

Prior to the game against Kean, Lisella felt that the win at NJCU to end a four-game skid was “fantastic.”

“The NJAC is brutal,” Lisella said. “You have to show up every day to play.

“That being said, we struggled for a couple of games while we were right in those games. We haven’t lost to a team by more than ten. We’ve proven we can play with anybody so we’re trying to get ourselves into a strong upswing as we head down the stretch.”

Rulon scored a career high 20 points against NJCU shooting 72 percent overall from the field. The second-year guard is averaging 4.5 points per game in just under 12 minutes a game this season. Her scoring outburst on Feb. 4 was five times over her average and for Rulon, it was “awesome.”

Rulon’s approach to the game is simple, “take everything day by day and focus on what’s next.”

She would like to see the team’s ball movement improve.

“On any given day, anyone can step up so if I’m not on during the next game, I’ll just set up my teammates so that they can have that same exact game as I did,” Rulon said.

Lisella said that on any given night, any of her players can be a threat on the floor anytime, anyplace and anywhere. There is absolute merit in that statement when looking at the past two games.

In the contest against TCNJ, Crilley and Rulon stepped up hitting double figures in points. Against NJCU, five players hit double digits.

The Profs look to stay the course and “play to their identity” as they travel to Rutgers-Newark on Feb. 11.

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